State's groundwater issues demand attention

A recent study by the state Department of Natural Resources on use of groundwater near the Little Plover River in central Wisconsin points to three needs: Farmers and the agriculture industry should pay attention to the science and adjust their irrigation methods; more study is needed of similar groundwater issues around the state; the Legislature needs to consider closer regulation of groundwater.

The study by the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey and the U.S. Geological Survey indicates that farming may have a significant impact on the Little Plover, which was designated by the conservation group American Rivers a few years ago as one of the most endangered rivers in the country.

George Kraft, a scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, and others have argued that the deep wells used in irrigating crops such as potatoes and vegetables suck up groundwater feeding rivers such as the Little Plover, a Class 1 trout stream. In 2005 and 2009, stretches of the river ran dry. Wisconsin is the No. 3 producer of potatoes in the country, and much of that crop is grown near Stevens Point.

The agriculture industry has argued the concerns are overblown and that other factors have been overlooked, including drought and urbanization. No doubt, the industry has a point; other factors do play a role.

But the study's conclusions, outlined in a recent Journal Sentinel article, are compelling:

■The ecology of the river is closely linked to groundwater, making the Little Plover vulnerable to groundwater pumping.

■About 80% of all of the water used in the river basin comes from irrigation.

■Not only do wells matter to the health of the river, but their location is critical. For example, removing about 15 wells closest to the river would substantially increase water flow in the Little Plover in an average year.

■As the water table drops, the top few feet used by streams and lakes are depleted, but farmers' wells still may have plenty of water.

The DNR has been under growing pressure from environmentalists and property owners in the Central Sands, where residents see a correlation between shrinking lakes and rivers and the number of pumps spraying long arcs of water on the landscape.

Industry official Tamas Houlihan told reporter Lee Bergquist that the Little Plover looks healthy today and that growers are already trying to conserve water through crop selection and more efficient equipment. But officials said water flows frequently fall below the minimum levels set by the Department of Natural Resources.

As one environmentalist put it last week, the Little Plover River is a "classic example of a water body that is dying a death of a thousand straws." The DNR needs to determine what is happening in other parts of Wisconsin and is hopeful that the model it developed for the Plover River study can be used elsewhere.

In the meantime, the industry and the Legislature need to look at what they can do. As state Sen. Julie Lassa (D-Stevens Point) put it, "It's easy to point fingers. We need to get people to the table to come up with solutions that meet everyone's needs."

Lassa is right. It's time all the parties involved started working on solutions before all those straws suck Wisconsin rivers dry.